Posts tagged: singapore
Yahoo!:
We’ve tallied up a list of Asia Pacific’s highest paid politicians based on figures from a number of publicly available sources including The Economist.
Singapore still tops the chart by a margin, even after a pay cut.
Siew Kum Hong:
There have always been two types of criticisms leveled at ministerial salaries. The first category comprised criticisms of the formula itself, that it led to distortions and did not achieve the outcomes we wanted. These are technical criticisms that implicitly endorsed the principle of pegging ministerial salaries at a discount to supposedly equivalent private-sector salaries.
The second category comprised criticisms of the absolute amount of ministerial salaries, which are seen as being excessive in their absolute amounts and completely out of touch with normal Singaporeans. These are political criticisms that will persist regardless of the formula used, because they stem from a fundamental perception that the absolute salaries are simply unjustifiably high, regardless of the formula used.
Agreed.
The Telegraph:
Critics immediately swamped online forums to slam the new salary scheme, which was recommended by an independent committee whose proposals Lee has agreed to implement.
“Ordinary minister’s salary still higher than US President! Still too high! Pure Nonsense!” wrote a reader who signed off as Lim Lao Pe on the Yahoo! Singapore portal.
Honest article title.
The Worker’s Party:
Rather than an approach that assumes top earners are also top talent, WP recommends a whole-of-government, people-up approach to determining ministerial salaries.
WP has identified this approach in the way 12 developed economies determine their politicians’ salaries. The economies are Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States. In most of these economies, a minister’s salary is set at multiples of that of an MP, which is in turn set at the salary of a senior management grade in the civil service. This is the approach that Singapore should take, as political office is in the genre of public service.
WP proposes that MPs’ allowances should be pegged to the salaries of divisional directors in the Civil Service (excluding the Administrative Service)2. Civil service salaries are currently competitively benchmarked to general wage levels of Singaporeans. The salaries of ministers and the Prime Minister should be set at reasonable multiples of an MP’s allowance.
WP is supportive of a variable component which takes into account both national objectives being achieved through a whole-of-government effort, as well as the individual performance of ministers. While the suggested National Bonus incorporates some indices, WP believes that the formula should reflect that some national goals are longer-term in nature, requiring an assessment over the term of a government, not annually; some bonus payments may need to be deferred. We also propose to do away with the Annual Variable Component as this is unnecessary, since there is already a National Bonus based on national economic outcomes. The sum of the total variable components should be capped at a reasonable number of months.
WP further believes that the procedure for any review or change of the salary structure for political office should be transparent and subject to Parliamentary approval.
Very reasonable and sound proposals.
AsiaOne News:
A Straits Times special report today detailed his list of accomplishments to date which, the paper said, has fuelled talks that he is the frontrunner to become the next prime minister.
So, they’re trying to sweeten people’s impression of this person? Icky.
Yahoo! News:
Many commuters have also complained about SMRT’s bad communication of the disruption.
Skyee Alfonso said, “Bus bridging service was only activated after an hour. No instruction and no help was given by SMRT staff to show the commuter where to take the buses.”
Themis Thng agreed and added, “Commuters at Raffles Place MRT Station did not even know about train service (being) down as the on screen panel only reflects “Do not board”. No station master at the station telling them also. No announcement heard either.”
This worries me. The second breakdown this week and they’ve yet to get their corporate communications in order. I really fear for any emergency.
It looks as if SMRT has no effective emergency commuter-management SOPs.
OK…I reported it on air and now I’m getting into trouble for it?? TheCC line is DOWN rite? I did nothing wrong rite?
— Hossan Leong (@HossanLeong) December 14, 2011
So, someone got censured for reporting facts. If this is the direction that the media in Singapore is going to take, I’m beyond certain that their demise is understated.
[via]
Did the National Taxi Association (NTA) breach anti-competition rules when it issued a statement urging taxi companies to follow ComfortDelGro’s example and adjust their fares?
Don’t you say. All unions that I’ve seen so far, fight for their workers’/members’ welfare and compensation, i.e. fighting for a reduction of rental, increase in healthcare benefits, or greater subsidies for diesel.
But here in uniquely Singapore, we have a National Taxi Drivers Union fighting to raise prices at the detriment of their very customers!?
Business 101 states never to piss your customers off unless you don’t want their business, or that you have no choice and you will have to work doubly hard to win them back.
Rather than just screwing with just Comfort cabs, the union is now “persuading” other cab companies to raise prices!? If this isn’t considered a form of price-fixing, then this is an extremely huge loophole that anyone can take advantage of in any oligopoly.
No surprise, the Competition Commission of Singapore refuses comment.
Yahoo! Southeast Asia has filed a memorandum of appearance with the courts to defend itself against allegations by Singapore Press Holdings that the digital media company had infringed on its copyright.
“We intend to vigorously defend ourselves against this suit,” said Yahoo! Southeast Asia Managing Editor Alan Soon. “Our editorial business model of acquired, commissioned and original content is proven.”
In its claim, SPH cited 23 articles which it alleged were reproduced from its stable of newspapers without permission. Yahoo! has denied the allegations in an earlier letter to SPH’s lawyers.
Looks like they’ve got bored with their old gun and found a new one. This will be an extremely interesting case—23 articles are alleged to be reproduced without permission. I’d like to see for myself.
Straits Times:
Its chief executive Saw Phaik Hwa said ridership may reach 400,000 by the end of the year - much faster than the six-to-nine months envisaged by the Government.
Is there any forecast that the government makes that is not below demand? Housing, nope. Healthcare, nope. Tax revenues, nope. Ministerial salaries, yeps.
Workers Party MP Chen Show Mao Parliament speech (by watchtowerv).
Spoken like a statesmen. Awesome speech in English; an even more awesome speech in Mandarin.
Low Thia Khiang vs Lim Swee Say & Lee Yi Shyan in Parliament—21 Oct 2011 (by 154media)
The Straits Times:
The man who has been linked to the Temasek Review sociopolitical website was arrested last month for offences under the Parliamentary Elections Act.
Revenge?
TODAYonline reports:
SMRT’s response on this morning’s Circle Line disruption, sent at 4.35pm, eight hours after the incident.…
The SMRT spokesperson also reiterated that “because Circle Line can operate in both directions, essentially train services were still running in spite of the faulty train”.
SMRT will send its statement on the southbound delay when it is ready.
The absurdity of this on many levels is just unbelievable.
East West Line delay: Train broke down and had to be pushed out of station (via STOMP - Singapore Seen).
They’ve finally learnt to put up signboard.
